Thanks folks. I'm in Texas at the moment, but am down in the wilderness, so local buying is a non starter.
The thing is, that unlike my old Spotmatic--which is probably worth now what I paid for it in the 197?--the manufacturers keep updating like automobiles, so old fogies like me, who expect to make an "investment" when buying anything, find that the only option is to buy used. So, I will be looking at the D70.....thanks for that.
Another problem to people like me, is to see a lens like the one on the Pentax, go to waste. I was told in the sixties, that the lovely bayonet system on my Yashica was passe...and I should go with the Pentax thread. I found this counter-intuitive, but got the Spotmatic anyway. The lens is quite the best piece of kit I have ever owned. 1:1.4 and was utterly perfect. I say was, cos it needs cleaning and the hobby stuff I had in the UK is either gone or in storage. So, a clean box with nitrogen supply is not a thing I can fabricate as I would have done at home. (I must have wasted years of my life trying not to part with money!!) Having said this, it takes a loop to see any dust.
I "spoke" to ebay this am, and asked what they thought of folk who only accept checks etc. They advised not proceeding with the deal. Pitty, there is a Canon with a buy now price that I would have paid, but I'm not sending money into space without PayPal.........unless there is a system that I don't know about.
Anyway, thanks again...and back to ebay. LR